Jeremy Renner started as a makeup artist and a home renovator. And then somewhere down the line, the guy decided acting was the move instead. Today, he’s an A-list movie star, a music artist with actual albums out, and, for reasons nobody has ever fully understood, also an app. But let’s just focus on the acting resume for now, because that alone is more than enough to work with.
He’s led entries in both the Bourne and 28 Days Later franchises. He became one of the best new additions in the Mission: Impossible series. And of course, there’s the role that made him a household name for over a decade: Hawkeye, the one Avenger with no powers who somehow never felt out of place standing next to gods and supersoldiers. With that kind of resume, picking his best work is genuinely tough, but the following performances stand above the rest and truly showcase his range as an actor.
5
‘The Town’ (2010)
Jeremy Renner as James in The TownImage via Warner Bros.
The Town is downright the best heist movie made after Heat, and that is not a compliment thrown around lightly. The film opens with a violent bank robbery where the crew takes the manager hostage before letting her go unharmed. However, things get complicated when the de facto leader of the crew starts falling for her. He conceals his real identity and starts a relationship with her while quietly trying to walk away from his criminal life.
That decision to go straight is exactly what sets off the real conflict of the movie, because his volatile, trigger-happy best friend Jem (Renner) is not about to let that happen. This is one of the rare roles in Renner’s career where he actually gets to let loose because he isn’t playing the disciplined soldier or the goody-two-shoes like he’s so often typecast as. Here, he is an unhinged loose canon, something along the lines of Trevor from GTA V, and it’s probably the most dangerous he has ever felt on screen.
4
‘Avengers: Endgame’ (2019)
Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton in ‘Avengers: Endgame’Image via Marvel Studios
Avengers: Endgame opens with Hawkeye losing his entire family to the Snap. And from there you watch exactly what that kind of loss does to a person when he adopts the far more violent Ronin persona. The pain is written all over him the moment he comes back into the fold, and it only builds from there.
Watching him head to Vormir with Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) and ultimately lose his lifelong best friend leads straight into that raw emotional outburst directed at Thor (Chris Hemsworth) once they’re back on Earth. It is one of the most serious, grounded moments in the entire film. When this scene played in theaters, you could’ve heard a pin drop. Everyone else in that movie gets their comic relief beat somewhere along the way, but not Renner. He actually carries the burden of trauma so convincingly till the end that it becomes one of the movie’s strongest emotional threads.
Collider Exclusive · Marvel Personality Quiz Which MCU Hero Are You? Spider-Man · Daredevil · Iron Man · Punisher · Thor · Cap
Six heroes. One destiny. Answer 10 questions to discover which Marvel Cinematic Universe hero shares your personality, values, and fighting spirit. Will you swing, fly, or thunder your way to glory?
🕷️Spider-Man
😈Daredevil
🤖Iron Man
💀Punisher
⚡Thor
🛡️Cap
01
What drives you to do what’s right? Choose the answer that feels most like you.
02
It’s 2 AM. Where are you? Your answer says more about you than you’d think.
03
How do you handle a villain who keeps escaping justice? Every hero has a method. What’s yours?
04
How do you feel about keeping a secret identity? The mask — or the lack of one — says everything.
05
You’ve lost someone important because of your heroism. How do you carry that? Every hero pays a price. The question is how they pay it.
06
What’s your role when working with a team? Who you are under pressure is who you actually are.
07
Where do you draw the line between justice and revenge? The answer defines what kind of hero you really are.
08
When you’re not saving the world, what does life look like? The person behind the mask is always the more interesting story.
09
What keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
10
The battle is lost. You’re outnumbered, outgunned, and exhausted. What do you do? This is your tiebreaker — choose carefully.
Your Hero Has Been Identified Your MCU Hero Is…
Based on your answers, the Marvel hero who matches your spirit, values, and instincts has been revealed.
Queens, New York
🕷️ Spider-Man
You carry the weight of the world on shoulders that are younger than they should have to be — funny, loyal, and endlessly self-sacrificing.
You do the right thing not because it’s easy, but because no one else will.
You understand that responsibility isn’t a burden you choose — it’s one that finds you.
Whether it’s a neighbourhood mugging or a multiverse crisis, you show up.
Peter Parker’s lesson — that great power demands great responsibility — isn’t a slogan to you. It’s the code you live by, even when it costs you everything.
Hell’s Kitchen, New York
😈 Daredevil
You fight in the shadows between law and chaos, guided by a fierce moral compass that refuses to let the guilty walk free.
You use every tool available — your mind, your body, your faith — to protect those the system overlooks.
You’ve looked into the darkness and chosen not to become it, though the line has never been easy.
Matt Murdock’s duality — champion in the courtroom, devil in the alley — mirrors your own.
Relentless, conflicted, and unwilling to stop. That is exactly you.
Stark Industries, Malibu
🤖 Iron Man
Brilliant, driven, and occasionally insufferable — but always the person who solves the unsolvable problem.
You lead with your mind and back it up with resources, innovation, and a stubbornness that borders on heroic.
You started out looking out for yourself, but somewhere along the way the world became your responsibility.
Tony Stark’s arc — from ego to sacrifice — is your arc too.
You build, you plan, and when the moment comes, you’re willing to give everything. Because in the end, you’re Iron Man.
New York City
💀 The Punisher
You’ve been through fire that would break most people — and it did change you, completely. What’s left is unyielding, relentless, and operating by a code forged in grief.
You don’t ask for forgiveness, and you don’t expect gratitude.
You see a corrupt, broken world and you’ve decided to do something about it, consequences be damned.
Frank Castle’s war is born from love twisted by loss — and so is yours.
Uncompromising and unflinching — the world may not agree with your methods, but your conviction is absolute.
Asgard · Protector of the Nine Realms
⚡ Thor
Powerful, proud, and on a lifelong journey to become worthy of the legend you carry.
You lead with strength but have learned — sometimes painfully — that true greatness comes from humility and growth.
You’re larger than life, yet more vulnerable than you let on.
Thor’s story is one of transformation: from arrogant prince to worthy king, from isolated warrior to beloved protector.
You bring the storm when it’s needed — and the warmth when it matters just as much.
Brooklyn, New York · The Avengers
🛡️ Captain America
You believe in something bigger than yourself — and you fight for it even when the world has moved on and nobody else will.
You don’t bully the small guy, and you never stop when it gets hard.
Steve Rogers didn’t become a hero when he got the serum — he was always one. So were you.
Your strength isn’t in your fists; it’s in your refusal to compromise what’s right, no matter the cost.
In a world full of people taking the easy road, you’re the one who picks up the shield and stands up — every single time.
3
‘Wind River’ (2017)
Jeremy Renner as Cole Lambert, looking in a room in a house and looking devastated in Wind RiverImage via STX Entertainment
Wind River is one of the greatest murder mysteries ever put to film. The film stars Renner as Cory Lambert, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife tracker, and Elizabeth Olsen as Jane Banner, an inexperienced FBI agent, as they investigate the rape and murder of an 18-year-old Native American woman found frozen in Wyoming. If shows like True Detective, Mare of Easttown, or Fargo are your thing, this movie belongs on your watchlist immediately.
What really makes Wind River hit as hard as it does is the way Renner’s character interacts with the victim’s father. Life, and movies for that matter, rarely give us honest man-to-man interactions where two guys actually let their guard down and show real hurt and understanding toward each other. Wind River is one of those rare films that lets that happen.
2
‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’ (2025)
Image via Netflix
Yet another whodunit, and yet another great one. Wake Up Dead Man follows master detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) as he investigates the seemingly impossible murder of Monsignor Jefferson Wicks (Josh Brolin). Wicks walks into a room in front of everyone, then mysteriously collapses and dies in a closet that only had that one entrance, so no one else could have entered the room without being seen by the church congregation.
From there, the eccentric townspeople all become suspects, Renner included. Saying any more about his character would tip straight into spoiler territory, since basically everyone in this movie is hiding something. But Renner is genuinely hilarious in this one and manages to make the most of every second of his limited screen time.
1
‘The Hurt Locker’ (2008)
Jeremy Renner as William in The Hurt LockerImage via Summit Entertainment
This is the movie that really put Renner on the map. Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker is a war film that stars Renner as Sergeant First Class William James, a highly capable soldier who takes over as team leader after the previous one is killed in action. However, he is addicted to the adrenaline and danger of combat, like he genuinely feels more at home walking toward a ticking explosive than he does living a quiet, domesticated life back home. That addiction comes with a dangerous indifference to protocol and safety, which leads to constant clashes with the men serving under him.
It’s an unflinching portrait of a guy who has become so consumed by war that ordinary life no longer makes sense to him. It’s well-acted, intensely shot, full of adrenaline-pumping action, and it still remains one of the best dramatizations of the Iraq War, with a near-perfect 96% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. The Hurt Locker made history as the first film directed by a woman to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, and it also earned Renner his first Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
